


Miscellaneous Drabbles and Ficlets

by Pouncer



Category: Apollo 13 (1995), Doctor Who, Firefly, Heroes - Fandom, Magnum pi, Pushing Daisies, Robin of Sherwood, Smallville, Supernatural, The 4400
Genre: Drabble Collection, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-14
Updated: 2009-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-04 10:35:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pouncer/pseuds/Pouncer





	Miscellaneous Drabbles and Ficlets

## Supernatural

#### For Issaro, tarp, Millennium Falcon, slope [125 words – I cheated]

Dean covered the Impala with a tarp, trying to camouflage it amid the trees. He hated to leave it parked on this hill, but the spirit knew it was being hunted.

Plus, Dean didn't trust trees – they'd probably drip something onto his baby and ruin the paint job.

"Are you done yet?"

Sam was always impatient. He'd never loved a car the way Dean loved his. She was so much more than transportation, every quirk and foible proof that she was _different_. Unique.

Dean's ride had character. Like the Millenium Falcon, in a way. She'd always come through in the clinch. Dean took one last look, and headed down to meet his brother.

A man couldn't go to battle worrying about what he'd left behind.

## Robin of Sherwood

#### For Widget285, Will Scarlett and Robin's death 

Robin had made them _believe_: that was the true secret of his power. And then Herne's son fell to the Sheriff's bowmen, and belief shattered into broken arrows, impossible to aim.

Will hadn't wanted to trust anything but violence, the thud of a fist meeting flesh, too mired in grief and bitterness mourning his wife. He didn't care if that landed him in dungeons.

Marion wept hidden tears while the rest of them wandered, lost. Nobody to lead them, nobody to make them believe – their grand adventure a failure.

They'd been fools to think they could best the Normans. Fools.

## Magnum, p.i.

#### For Vanillafluffy, snarky Higgins

The Nineteenth Annual Recital of Her Majesty's Morris Dancers had just gotten underway when disaster struck, suddenly.

Some time later, when Higgins had disentangled the dancers from the audience, the fool from the beast, and directed the police to the miscreants, he caught sight of Magnum attempting to slink away.

"Magnum!" Higgins roared.

Broad shoulders shrunk inwards, and Magnum turned with a sheepish expression on his face.

"Magnum, how dare you bring your latest paramour to this occasion?"

Magnum opened his mouth, doubtless to protest his innocence. "And don't tell me that this wasn't deliberate sabotage – I saw you laughing!"  


#### For Barkley, Five times Magnum drove over the speed limit

  
1\. The Pertwee case was breaking, and if Magnum wanted to stop destruction of the evidence that would guarantee his fee (including a hefty bonus), he had to get to Kaelepulu Pond an hour ago. He was lucky the roads were clear.

2\. Higgins was a pain and most of the time Magnum enjoyed their running battles – they were a distraction from the mundane details of day to day life. But this time, Higgins had gone too far. Magnum downshifted as he drove around a corner, and winced at the sound the Chevy Nova's transmission made. Towing the Ferrari from the King Kamehameha Club parking lot was going too far.

3\. T.C. would be back from his latest Island Hoppers charter in forty-five minutes. Magnum had borrowed the van to pick up a crate at the airport after Higgins demanded tribute for some imagined invasion of the wine cellar. Borrowed without asking. The crate was safely back at the estate, Higgins digging through the contents with a pleased smirk. Now the van had to get back or T.C. would never fly Magnum and his kayak out to sea for a distance training session this weekend. And Magnum needed that training session if he was going to make the top ten in the next race.

4\. Weird as it was to be investigating events that took place during World War II, Magnum was kind of enjoying the opportunity to hang out at Wheeler Airfield. It was the first place the Japanese attacked before going on to Pearl Harbor, and Magnum's client wanted to find out the circumstances surrounding her grandfather's death on that fateful morning. Review of the archives had taken all afternoon, and it was only when Magnum emerged to see the blood-red sun dropping westward that he remembered he'd promised Rick that he'd join him for dinner at the King Kamehameha Club. Rick and his honorary-Aunt Gladys and T.C. and oh, Magnum was going to be in so much trouble if he didn't get there on time.

5\. Sunday morning and the day was already glorious. The wind whipped through Magnum's hair and battered his sunglasses and all he did was grin.

(With thanks to Wikipedia and Google Maps)

## Firefly

#### For Chosenone, Mal/Kaylee. Something sweet

Kaylee twirled her umbrella and hummed, walking through the docks. Knossos ain't her favorite planet, mind, but it was good enough. Captain'd promised that he'd take her to the junk yard soon and she could scavenge to her heart's content. Her baby needed parts to keep her running smooth.

"You ready, _mei-mei_?" came a rough voice from behind her.

Kaylee turned around and smiled real wide and big.

"Sure am. You got cargo?" She never knew what Mal would find.

"That I do. And a grand adventure it will be."

They went off to discover how to fulfill their dreams.

#### Lost Echoes 

  
He's lost his sense of humour in this strange new 'verse. In school and in residency, he found silliness all around him every day. The ways people found to injure themselves made him whoop with laughter when he told the other doctors the tales. A child playing with his schoolmates in the park would make him smile in reminiscence as he walked home from a long night at the hospital.

Then River started writing senseless letters from the Academy and he stopped seeing the absurdity of life and began seeing the horror. His final desperate irrevocable action to rescue her sundered his ties with his parents and his former life. It snapped him away from any emotion but fear.

Being on Serenity is like riding one of the roller coasters at the amusementplex. Dizzying highs and lows, but like a grey cloudbank sparking lightning overhead is fear of the Alliance. He will not allow them to take River again. He won't. Nothing more will harm her while he draws breath.

Sometimes for brief moments he can ignore the sensation of thunder rumbling just out of hearing. Kaylee drowns it out with her bright eyes and smiling mouth. Inara soothes tension away with her studied manner. River makes mischief as eagerly as her younger self, forcing the laughter unwilling from his aching heart.

Too soon his mirth dies away to echoes. Then the fear returns.

## Apollo 13

  
For cricketk, the dark side of the moon, out of contact for 24 minutes 35 seconds, conversation between Lovell and the newbies.

  
Everything about this trip is unique, but Lovell's surprised at the way his stomach twists when they lose contact with Houston.

Freddo's looking out the tiny window like he's seeing heaven, just out of his grasp.

"They said the far side was different, but--" Swigert can't make sense. "I've seen pictures, even," he trails off.

Freddo just nods.

Lovell's soaked in the view before. "We are privileged, gentlemen. If we make it around all the way," and his voice drops at the end.

Freddo and Swigert glance back at him, faces confused. Better stop that.

"We _will_ get home."  


## The 4400

#### For wwolfe, Tom and Diana

"I really don't understand why you broke up with Marco," Tom said.

Diana resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"It's not nearly as dramatic as why you and Alanna aren't together anymore," Diana said. "It's also none of your business."

"He moons after you," Tom apparently felt the need to point out.

"He does his job," she shot back. "And does it well, so I don't even see why you're mentioning this."

Tom shook his head and looked down at his desk. "You seemed happy with him," he said, forlorn.

"It isn't always about that, Tom."

"It should be."

##  Doctor Who

Think of the Doctor holding kittens. Soft, fuzzy, playful kittens, that climb up his shoulder and snuffle into the hollow between neck and collarbone. He giggles, although he'll deny it later, and then a rough tongue laps at a tendon and he squawks and pulls the kitten away by the scruff of her neck.

The kitten, all grey and tiny, hangs in the air and waves her paws, head tilted to one side as if to say, "Why are you denying me?"

"Come here," the Doctor mutters, and settles his new friend in the crook of his elbow, using his other hand to stroke down the ruffled fur.

The kitten purrs. A smile grows on the Doctor's face, and he scritches her chin.

He supposes he'll have to see about locating a litter box. The TARDIS undoubtedly has one in the storage closet somewhere.

#### Guidance Systems

The TARDIS door opened to reveal drab concrete walls and exposed overhead pipes.

"Well, well," the Doctor mused, looking around. "What have we here?"

Rose sniffed and detected the scent of mold. "Yes, what do we have here?" No where she wanted to be, that was certain.

"I don't know," said the Doctor. "Let's go find out." And off he trotted, overcoat swirling around his ankles.

Rose sighed and followed. The tunnel stretched in front of them, lights fizzing and going dim in a way that seemed designed for menace. Rose had learned to hate tunnels of late.

The Doctor slammed to a halt, his attention caught by writing on the walls. "Ah," he said, and reached for his glasses.

Rose peered closer – the dim light made it difficult to read, but those were English letters. It looked like some kind of code.

"What does it say, Doctor?"

Before he could answer, a voice cried out, "Hands up!"

Rose turned and saw men in uniform pointing guns at her. "Not again," she groaned, raising her hands into the air.

  


* * * 

The Doctor talked to Rose in a low voice while they waited for the base commander to appear. "This is Ellsworth Air Force Base, in South Dakota, and the year is probably 1962 if what I heard from the guards is accurate."

"What did you hear from the guards?" Rose asked. He never went into details unless she prodded him, and she hadn't been able to put anything they'd said into context. Plus, she'd been distracted by the hated feel of handcuffs around her wrists.

"Oh, just something about Cuba and foreign agents and missiles," the Doctor replied airily.

"Missiles?" Her shoulders were beginning to ache from the way her hands were bound behind her back.

"Well, you see, the Minuteman missile just became operational – this was its first base. And the Cubans just received medium-range missiles from the Soviet Union, and—" The guard was looking at them with narrow eyes, and the Doctor's voice became a whisper, "—this may not be the best time to have a foreign accent and be found in a military installation."

"Of course not." Rose slumped deeper into her chair, then groaned at the pull of the handcuffs.

  


* * * 

Three hours later, they were on their way back to the TARDIS. It had taken some fast talking and more than one appearance of the psychic paper for the Doctor to convince Colonel Baker that they were associated with the British embassy and here to offer support.

And the Doctor had known just what to do to repair the odd console with its blinking lights and huge buttons and levers. He'd bopped around, poking and fiddling and exclaiming in delight while Rose flirted with Sergeant Miller, a sweet-faced boy with a drawl so thick she could barely understand him.

"What did that console do, anyway?" Rose asked as they walked through a steadily more-deserted tunnel. It all looked like something out of Star Trek to her.

"Targeted missiles," the Doctor said. "Did you know that the Minuteman was one of the first places a small-scale integrated circuit was used?"

"A what circuit?" He always said things that confused her. She never knew whether to be proud or offended that he didn't explain unless she asked.

"Grandfather of the microprocessor and the computer chip that lets you call your mum from anywhere." He looked around the barren hallways. "From this place, the information age will rise. The internet is a far better use for the technology anyway, don't you think?"

"Why doesn't my phone get a 'net connection?" Rose asked, suddenly curious. She could have been checking the sales at Top Shop all this time and he'd never told her?

The Doctor paused to unlock the TARDIS, and Rose thought his face looked shifty. "It's much more difficult to connect to all that data." He opened the door and disappeared inside. "So where do you want to go next?" he asked, an obvious attempt at distraction.

"Surprise me," Rose said, deciding to let him get away with it, just this once. She could always ask more questions about what her phone could do later.  


#### For Rheanna, Five rooms in the TARDIS we've never seen on screen

  
1\. The butler's pantry. The china dates from the Eastern Han Dynasty, the silver was made by Paul Revere, and the crystal was grown on a moon of Ktrilla just before the solar flares made it uninhabitable.

  
2\. The artist's _salon_. The Doctor no longer displays original paintings, only copies, because he feels too remorseful since the time he was discovered borrowing The Scream. He had to run, and then the TARDIS decided to act contrary and it was over a decade of Earth time before he could manage to return it.

  
3\. The Companion's Gallery, where he only goes when he feels especially melancholy. Each face forces a pang from his hearts, a syncopated rhythm of pain and remembrance. Some, like Adric, strike deeper than others, but he misses all of them even if they left because it was the right time. It had been the right time. It had.

  
4\. The memorial to Gallifrey. He hated the place while he was there, couldn't wait to get away (and really, what were they thinking, trying to make him _President_?). Then came the Time War, and well. The TARDIS has always been sneaky about giving him what he needs instead of what he wants.

He hasn't opened the door yet. He stands outside and thinks about it, but what he lost cannot be replaced by a simulation.

  
5\. The lawn tennis courts don't serve a practical purpose, although Susan did have a wicked forehand. That reminds him. He'll have to take Rose to Wimbledon, so she can see Fred Perry win.

#### For Leoff, Five outfits the Ninth Doctor tried out before settling on his leather jacket

  
1\. A kilt and sporran, just to be different. Besides, it reminded him of Jamie.

2\. A brown suit, with a long overcoat. It didn't fit him right.

3\. A cobalt blue sweater, with the thought that he needed brightening up. He preferred darker hues in the end.

4\. The traditional apparel of the Margrave of Vlindako, but it was far too ornate for regular travel. The headgear alone would have required a servant hovering constantly in attendance.

5\. Bermuda shorts, because he'd always loved the island and had an especial fondness for golfing there. They were draftier than he'd expected.

#### For Miss Katelynne, _Rose and The Doctor_

The Morbath of Gesular welcomed the Doctor back with cries of happiness and welcoming arms. Lots and lots of welcoming arms.

Rose blinked at their reception committee, and the bright sunlight. "Doctor?"

"Aren't they fantastic?" His smile was broad as the ocean. Rather like the Morbaths' arms.

She ventured again, "How do you know them?"

"Oh, that's an interesting story," he said, locking the TARDIS door. "They had a short life span thanks to radiation exposure. Lots of," and here his voice lowered, "mutations."

Rose gulped.

"I helped them stabilize the genome some time back. Really, everyone should wear sunscreen."

#### For Elishavah, Nine, with Rose after they dropped Adam off

The TARDIS console beeps and Rose exhales. She's rather glad Adam is gone. The money-grubber.

The Doctor frowns at a display, his shoulders straight beneath his leather jacket. Rose feels grungy, soiled by the alien overlord of Satellite Five.

"Is there a bathtub aboard?" Rose demands. She's been making do with showers for too long.

The Doctor replies, absently, "Oh yes. Close to the cloister bell, as I recall. Although where that is," he trails off, shifts a control, stares back down.

Rose waits, jittering. "Well? Where?" Her voice almost whines, but he looks up, smiles.

"Shall we go searching?"

#### For Miss Pamela, Nine or Ten

He was so _different_ now, changed beyond the external. New body, new face, new hair, (_"New teeth!" he crowed in memory_) yet the unseen haunted Rose. She'd always felt safe with the old him. Protected. Like he wouldn't let anything bad happen to her, even when they faced Slitheen threatening invasion or nanobots gone awry and survival seemed impossible.

He always came through, always saved them. And he _still_ saved them, but she missed the intangible force of his old personality, the surety that the universe would warp to his specifications, even as he smiled goofily and tried charm first.  


#### For laura_isaac: Mesmerized.  Doctor/Master, 379 words.

_(Goes AU toward the end of The Sound of the Drums)_

  
"Won't you do what I say, Doctor?" The Master's smile was predatory, and all the Doctor could think of was Martha and her family, under the Master's control.

The Doctor had to close his eyes and shudder before he said, "Yes. I will."

"Such a good boy," the Master crooned. His fingertips whispered down the Doctor's cheek. He didn't know whether to tremble or press closer.

_Not alone. Not alone. Not alone._

"Do you remember the Academy?" the Doctor asked, because he couldn't bite the words back. Sometimes, visions of Gallifrey swept through his mind, and he never knew if he should dive into them or banish them forever. His world, hated and fled and beloved and _home_, was gone, smashed from the fabric of time, yet the Master remained.

"Of course I do, Doctor." The Master's hand was on the Doctor's collarbone now, unbuttoning his shirt, slipping inside and tapping in rhythm with first one heart, then the other. "Such a beautiful beat, and we're the only ones left who create it."

"You're all about destruction," the Doctor said, and he should have held his tongue, he should have, because the Master reared back, nose flared.

The Doctor braced for a blow, but it didn't come. Instead, the Master gestured to the woman garbed in red silk, his human wife. "Lucy, darling, won't you ask the captain of the guard to throw Tish over the side?"

She hummed a dissonant tune, and left the control room with a vague wave.

For all that his soul cried out, the Doctor knew no objection would save Martha's sister. He was lucky the Master hadn't decided to go straight for Martha, but he probably wanted to save her to quash some future rebellion.

"There, there," the Master murmured. The Doctor felt a sharp prick at his neck, but couldn't see what caused it. "Creation doesn't occur without at least _some_ destruction, dear Doctor." A warm lassitude spread throughout the Doctor's limbs.

The Master's nails against the Doctor's cheek were intoxicating. Why were his hands bound? He wanted to touch in return, but all he could do was listen to the delightful purr of the Master. "Don't you want to see what we can do together?"

Rassilon help him, the Doctor did.  


## Pushing Daisies

#### For vonnie_k, libertine

  
Although one wouldn't think it, the Piemaker was a libertine of the highest order. Deprived by circumstance from loving touch, he took solace in pleasures of another sort:

The cool glide of flour turning into flaky crust.

The scent of cinnamon and nutmeg mingling with apples as they baked.

The beauty of a perfectly-browned lattice-topped apple pie.

The taste of a pie crafted by his own hands, his labor, his care making Chuck smile wide and sigh with bliss.

The Piemaker began to plot, season by season, what he would create to keep her happy.

Next up: passion fruit mousse.  


## Heroes

#### For Tenshinya, Charlie

Charlie's face beamed with wonder when Hiro presented her with his love gift. One thousand cranes, each folded to embody his deepest wish.

A wish denied.

Her body rests in a plain wooden coffin now, friends filing past to say goodbye. She touched so many, with her cheer and her manner and her beauty. A waitress should be plain, serve coffee and waffles and let a patron continue with their day, unremarked.

Hiro sits in the church pew and drops his head into his hands. She was unique, his beloved. Shining joy of his life. He will miss her forever.

#### For Aurora 84, Sylar/Mohinder-ish? In the 'String Theory'-verse

In the end, Mohinder wasn't surprised. Not really. Not like he'd tried to tell himself – that the President trusted his opinion, valued his advice.

That the way the President's eyes lingered on Mohinder's skin wasn't anything like Zane's (Sylar's) gaze.

That the hands on Mohinder's shoulders guiding him out of the Oval Office felt nothing like the fingers that had stroked down his flanks in hotel rooms across America, the palms that had brought such ecstasy.

That the plans to eradicate those with mutated DNA weren't the words of a serial killer, a madman.

But Mohinder had always known, somehow.  


#### For Cedara,  M3 with a Matt/Mohinder first kiss [125 words]

"It's not like I'm an _expert_," Matt said.

Mohinder wouldn't accept that. "You've more credentials than me."

Matt's raised brows were eloquent reproach.

Surveilling the mess on the floor, Mohinder sighed and lifted a screwdriver. "All right, where do we start?"

Two hours later, they sprawled against the couch. Matt asked plaintively, "Why did we decide to celebrate Christmas?"

"For Molly."

She would _love_ the multi-story dollhouse. With added science lab. And policeman patrolling the neighborhood.

"Oh. Right." Matt's head drooped sideways and landed on Mohinder's shoulder, a comforting weight.

Carefully not thinking, Mohinder let his lips brush Matt's forehead.

Matt turned, and Mohinder braced for a punch but found himself with an ardent suitor instead.

"Took you long enough," Matt whispered against Mohinder's mouth.

## Smallville

#### Dreams

  
Clark once commented that Lex belongs in trendy clubs and cutting-edge clothes. He doesn't know that Lex's favorite places have soft edges. When he was marooned on the island, Lex would sit on the sand, sifting the fine grains through his hand over and over. The warmth felt gritty, and covered his body until he would plunge out through the surf. The ocean looked turquoise from the shore, but once he was in the water the color shifted, transformed into a fine greenish-tan by particles pounded in the breaking waves. He would look out towards the horizon and think about starting to swim to the edge of the world. But then Louis would yell from the shore and Lex would swim back.

Even building the raft didn't slake his urge to swim.

Lex believes in facing his fears. He believes in confronting his weaknesses. So when he wanders through the priciest stores in Metropolis he chooses khaki pants that echo the color of the water. Khaki was first used in India by British troops, and the martial origins please Lex. He can only hope that the way he looks in them will please Clark. Some day he'll take his farm boy to the edge of the world, where they can play in the waves free from all constraints.

Maybe then Clark will give in to the urge to touch Lex the way he wants to be touched. Until then, he strokes the fabric of his new pants and dreams that the fingers belong to Clark.


End file.
